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Kingdom Seminar on America’s Christian Worldview Held in Columbia

A Kingdom Seminar on America’s Christian worldview was held at Columbia Evangelical Church on September 24, 2016. It was sponsored by Rev. E. Ray Moore (Lt. Col.), USAR Ret., of Frontline Ministries and the Exodus Mandate Project (www.exodusmandate.org), and Dan Smithwick of the Nehemiah Institute (www.worldviewcourse.com). There were three presentations: 1: World History from A Biblical Perspective; 2: 30 Years of Youth Worldview; and 3: Review of American Historical Worldview.

Smithwick presented “The Story of Christendom,” outlining major historical events from Creation to the present. He observed that approximately every 500 years a major historical event occurs wherein God lets man know that He still exists. He noted the following approximate dates and events: 2500 BC: Noah’s flood; 2000 B.C.: Creation of Israel; 1500 B.C.: Exodus/Mosaic Law; 1000 B.C.: Beginning of Kingdoms; 500 B.C.: Rebuilding Israel after Babylonian Exile; 0 A.D.: Jesus’ Birth, Death and Resurrection; 500 A.D.: Consolidation of Christendom; 1000 A.D.: the Light of the Church; and 1500 A.D.: the Protestant Reformation. He believes that near 2000 A.D., God is about to cause another major event. Smithwick, who was in business management with AT&T for twenty years, believes a global financial collapse will soon occur to bring us to repentance. Consequently, he is trying to wake America up to do God’s will.

The second session reviewed American Christian Worldview from inception to the present. Smithwick quoted Jedidiah Morse, father of modern geography, who said: “Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings which flow from them, must fall with them.” Smithwick illustrated how, starting with the Pilgrims and for 300 years, the family provided children’s nurturing, education and community support, while the church provided Biblical instruction, education, sacraments and care of the poor. Meanwhile, the government provided defense, punishment and stability. But now, the family only provides nurture, if that, while the church only provides sacraments. The State assumed their other responsibilities, including: defense, education, banking, health care, housing, welfare, insurance, and even the auto industry.

Why did this shift occur? Smithwick points out that the average tithe is 4%, whereas the average taxes paid are 40%. The reduction in government responsibility and taxes must be accompanied by an increase in money and responsibilities restored to the church. Therefore Smithwick believes that only an economic crash will force us to restore our original Biblical system.

Consequently Smithwick saw the need thirty years ago for a standardized test to rate individual worldviews. He researched the basics of one’s worldview and developed the PEERS test, an acronym which stands for each category: Politics, Economics, Education, Religion and Social Issues. It doesn’t test Biblical knowledge or whether a person is a Christian, but rather assesses how the testee thinks the world should work. Scores range from +100 to -100; 70-100 reflects a mature, Biblical worldview, whereas 0-29 is a secular worldview. Less than zero is socialist, trending all the way down to communism/atheism. The PEERS test was validated when taken by a group of both Biblical scholars and respondents to ads in The Humanist Magazine and the New Age Journal. Test scores were within the predicted ranges for each group.

Sadly, after almost thirty years of consistent PEERS testing, Smithwick documents that even in Christian schools, scores have rapidly declined to a predominately secular worldview. Ninety percent of Christian school students don’t score above 70. Smithwick said the only solution is to retrain teachers. Unfortunately, “younger teachers are resistant to change-the result of our postmodern culture.” He added, “Status quo Christianity is permitting the USA to die out. There aren’t 500 Christian schools out of 10,000 in America that have a Biblical worldview.”

Smithwick reviewed America’s historical education, culture and worldview during the last session. Character was originally shaped by Christianity in the colonial era whereas now it is shaped by culture. God and Christ were real and knowledge came from the Bible and reason, but now science and new age philosophy are gods and our “knowledge” comes from our individual desires and postmodernism. The stage was set in the 1800s, by the likes of Horace Mann, John Dewey, and Darwin’s The Origin of Species. 1859 was a pivotal year, when Mann died, Dewey was born, and Darwin’s evolutionary theory was published. By 1870, every state had state-supported schools. Smithwick considers our modern period, “The New World Order Era” to have started in 1993 when the first postmodernism classes were first taught.

Rev. Moore said “Dan Smithwick has tested 110,000 evangelical children...and their world views are overwhelmingly secular humanist or socialistic...Evangelical Christianity and traditional morality in USA are now in a steep decline and we will lose all but 10-20% of the next generation of evangelical youth. If this trend continues, the left’s victory over the evangelical church and culture will be complete in a decade and we will be like Europe, where only 5% attend church on a regular basis...We are still light years behind the left on how to fight the culture war.”

The seeds of America’s destruction were sown over a century ago. We need to prepare ourselves and our children for a long battle to restore America. Thankfully, Rev. E. Ray Moore and Dan Smithwick are fighting hard to warn America and retain our blessed Christian heritage.